Minneapolis Parking Meters – A Discussion With Dillon Fried, Assistant Parking Systems Manager

Article by Becky Fillinger, photos provided

Dillon Fried

I interact many times a week with parking meters in Minneapolis - I imagine that’s true for many Downtown residents. We had questions about the parking meters network and went to the guru – Dillon Fried, Assistant Parking Systems Manager. He gave us the stats on number of meters, most popular meters and how proceeds are used by the city. 

Q:  What’s the total number of parking meters in the city of Minneapolis?

A:  As of mid-May, there are 9451 active metered spaces in the city’s network.

Q:  What’s the busiest parking meter – number of meter and location?

A:  There are 3 ways we look can look at defining the “busiest” metered space – the total paid time, the number of transactions, and the total revenue. These are the busiest ones for each category in 2022:

• 1720 is the busiest space by paid time (5,573.55 hours) at 700 3rd Street N

• 40123 is the busiest by transaction count (3,512 purchases) at 1321 University Avenue SE

• 12758 is the busiest by revenue ($10,226.20 in revenue for 2022) at 78 9th Street S

 

The interactive map of our metered parking system can be found here.

Q:  Let’s ask it in reverse, what is the least busy parking meter?

A:  There are several metered spaces that are taken out of service for all or part of any given year for developments or other projects. For 2022 we think the least used metered space that wasn’t inactivated at any point was 61124 located at 436 15th Street W (zero transactions in 2022).

Q:  What projects or programs do meter fees fund?

A:  Meters fees go into the City’s Parking Enterprise Fund, along with all of the City owned garage and lot revenues and the impound lot revenues. In addition to covering operational and capital expenses, some examples of programs funded specifically by the meter revenues are the city’s bike parking cost share program and the Minneapolis sites in the EV Spot Network.

Q:  How is parking meter data utilized by City decision makers?

A:  Meter payment data is used to monitor parking demand throughout the meter system. Generally, pricing of metered areas is adjusted up or down to achieve turnover of spaces and to make sure motorists can access the adjacent land uses. We like to say we price parking to be mostly full but not completely full.